Blockbusters Delayed in Mexico Due to Swine Flu

The swine flu outbreak is wreaking some havoc on the entertainment industry. We've seen sports events in Texas and Alabama completely canceled as a precaution, and the movie studios are following suit, affecting some of their biggest releases of the year. The Mexican debut of Wolverine has already been pushed back two weeks, and now Variety reports that other May blockbusters have been shelved there, too. Sony is postponing Angels & Demons in Mexico until June 12th. That's nearly a month-long delay. Because of the way the studios work their international distribution, Sony is also handling Warner Bros. Terminator Salvation in Mexico, and it is being pushed back - get this - from June 5th to July 31st. Star Trek has been bumped from its May 8th opening in Mexico, as well, but no new release date has been given. I suppose there is a chance these delays are worst-case scenarios. If the outbreak can be effectively contained, then it's possible Terminator wouldn't have to wait almost two months. The flip side of that is movie scheduled to open in June and July haven't announced moves, which means the blockbusters from May have to work around those schedules to find good weekends to be released; who does it help if Terminator and Harry Potter open the same day? It should also impact advertising to some degree, because money is already being spent on Wolverine, Trek, and Terminator, meaning the studios will either have to release the films without throwing more money at them or re-launching campaigns trumpeting the new release dates.